You sent thousands of cards to encourage others. Take a next step for yourself.

We usually publish Rachel Jones on Wednesday, but we’re mixing it up this week to make room for a series. Fall can be hectic for families. Real people have real struggles honoring the commandment to rest. This Thursday, Friday and Saturday we’ll hear from three different authors (two new to us!) reflecting on God’s call for sabbath time. – Ed.

Last week was kind of crazy. Again. I feel like lately every time I’ve sat down to write to you, there’s been some mess or nightmare or hurricane or earthquake or meanness to try and talk about. I want you to know I’m praying for you, you precious parents and caregivers and grandparents and godparents.

You have a beautiful, life-giving job to do raising your small people. It’s also a really hard job, and the world compounds the difficulty when the hits just keep on coming. I think about you every day, and ask God’s blessings on your work in raising children. Thank you for saying “yes” to this calling.

While I’ve been reading through your love letters to our friends who are recovering from storms and earthquakes and wildfires, I’ve been struck by how you’ve responded to our friends and the call for love letters. You guys—we’ve got literally thousands of notecards to send to folks in need of encouragement. YOU DID THIS. And it is beautiful. If I could bake you cupcakes and give you hugs, I would do it. You’ve made me smile and cry and thank God for the goodness and love you’ve shown to so many people.

I want to invite you to do one more thing—something for the people you live with and around. I want you and your people to make a play-list together. Use whatever music service you like—you can even go old-school and pull out your cd’s and records.

Sit with your people and talk about the music you like, the songs you listen to in the car, or listened to when you were falling in love or delivering babies or newspapers or whatever. Pick out ten songs that bind you together—songs you can sing along with at the top of your lungs, songs that remind you of happy times and sunshine and laughter and the good things you and your people do together.

On days when you feel cranky, when the clouds make it hard to remember that the sun is still shining, when things feel prickly and gross, take your playlist out and run through your songs. Sing along, and you’ll feel God giving your heart a squeeze, speaking words of peace into your heart, and a smile sneaking into the corners of your mouth.

God is growing something inside of us, day by day, and music is one of the ways God waters and feeds that new, beautiful thing.

Here’s one of the songs on my list, a cover of one of my favorite artists by one of my other favorite artists:

What song keeps you grounded in challenging times?

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About Rachel Jones

Rachel Jones loves Jesus, her husband, their respective families, barbecue, breakfast tacos, Bob Dylan, baseball, the Book of Jeremiah, trips to the beach, finding money in a jacket pocket, and snagging the shadiest parking spot in the lot—in that exact order. Rachel and Mr. Jones live in Cincinnati with three neurotic cats and a new kitten named Carrie Fisher. Rachel is the Associate Editor for Forward Movement. When she’s not working on Forward Day by Day, she’s usually looking for her car keys or putting up preserves, but should probably be updating her blog at https://makeshiftfarms.wordpress.com

Thank you so much for your comment! While our current Hurricane of Love season has come to a close, rest assured we’ll be inviting you and yours to participate in another project soon! Peace and joy–rachel

If you’ve got some late cards, go ahead and send them to me! We’ll make sure they end up in good hands!
I’ll be mailing them out in bunches over the next couple of weeks, so give me what you’ve got! Big hugs!